2 10 91 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/5a137c5b87f1a519e44b485e096bc4db.pdf 4fc5ce42d8b675391d7c66e3da317609 PDF Text Text James Lynn John Desmond Final Project SECTION ONE Person interviewed: Carolyn Brehm Interviewee’s title or position: VP of Global Government Relations at Procter & Gamble Date, time, and length of interview: 11/21/16, 2:30 pm, 44 minutes Your objective in conducting this interview: Learning as much as possible about U.S Asian Relations through a person that lives and breathes it every single day. SECTION TWO We went to our favorite search engine and first typed in Carolyn Brehm and found a short biography about her, which we were fortunate to find. After seeing that she worked for General Motors and seeing her position there we researched General Motors to see what she was involved in. She also worked for ORBIS so we researched that and finally we researched what someone in her position does currently as the VP of Global Government Relations at Procter & Gamble. We prepared by reviewing the interview tips given to us by Professor Christoff. After preparing individually by coming up with our own questions to ask using the powerpoint as a guideline we met up to discuss how the interview would be run. List your interview questions. 1. What did you think you were going to be when you grew up? 2. Was there a teacher in high school or college who had a strong impact in your life, what can you tell us about them? 3. How did you become interested in East Asian Studies? 4. What was the very beginning of your career at General Motors like when Chinese markets had just opened up to American companies once again? 5. What difficulties, if any, have you experienced as a result of your gender? What difficulties, if any, have you faced working as an American in Asia? 6. How do you learn about your consumer audience and translate this information back to your company? 7. Why did you decide to leave GM? �8. Do you perceive any specific characteristics that women possess that allow them to be efficient leaders in the business of public and foreign relations? 9. How did you decide to work at ORBIS international, and what were the differences between working with an NGO as opposed to a company? 10. How have you helped to grow P&G’s business, and what are some of the key differences between Asian and American consumers of P&G products? SECTION THREE 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain - Yes, although the first few questions were answered with a smaller length than the rest of the questions, each question was taken seriously and each part of the question was addressed. At times Carolyn went on for around 7 minutes answering just one of our questions, and by doing so she shared stories and details that we had not directly asked about including her opinion of GM as a company and her experiences as an exchange student in Bombay in high school. 2. - Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain Our interview was more structured than mixed. Although we provided feedback throughout the interview by nodding our heads and occasionally sharing our opinion on what she had said, we stuck to our questions and only deviated towards the end when we felt one of the questions should be asked before another. John asked one question, “What was it like living in a third world country?” that was not part of our pre-interview questions. We felt this format was effective, and we noticed that Mrs. Brehm had previously gone over the questions and was ready to respond to all of them. 3. - What probing questions did you use? Explain One probing question was, “What was the very beginning of your career at General Motors like when Chinese markets had just opened up to American companies once again?”. This was a point of view probing question because we were interested in her perspective during this unique time in history that directly involved US-Asian relations. �During World War II and the Chinese revolution, most foreign companies from the West exited China and we knew from our pre-interview research that Mrs. Brehm was involved in setting up new offices for General Motors in the 1980s. By asking this question she informed us of her work with the US China Business Council, meeting her husband in China, the international trading climate at the time, and her role as a young employee of GM. - Another probing question we asked was, “How have you helped P&G’s business grow, and what are some of the key differences between the Asian and American consumers of P&G’s products?”. Mrs. Brehm found this question to be challenging because it made her consider her and her department's role within P&G, and also to think about her global consumer market that consists of ~5 billion people. This question was a clarifying question, because before conducting the interview we were still not completely sure what a global government affairs department does, and how it helps its respective business. She clarified that the way she helps her company grow is by advocating for legislation (for research, tax policy, advertising, engineering freedom), regulation (especially for Ecommerce), and public policy to protect both her company and the consumers. She also clarified that there is not such a great difference between different nationalities in purchasing patterns but rather that there are similarities in purchasing patterns amongst similar socio-economic classes across nations. 4. - Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? For the pre-interview research we both googled Mrs. Carolyn Brehm to see if we could discover anything about her. From there we both researched the companies GM, P&G and the NGO, ORBIS international to find out their purposes as institutions. While researching them we tried to find information about their roles in Asia and we were able �to find the most telling information about GM because of their history in China. John wrote most of the questions based off of the combined research that was completed and tried to ask questions that would allow Carolyn to tell stories about her personal and professional life, while James revised them and added a few of his own. For the interview itself James took the responsibility of explaining the purpose of our interview to Carolyn and in general he gave more feedback throughout the interview to let Mrs. Brehm know that we were engaged in the stories and information she was providing. We split the questions between us so that we would alternate when asking questions. For the oral presentation we also split the questions listed in the rubric and revised each other's answers. Finally for this written section we took turns transcribing the interview and answering the different sections. 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain - No, Carolyn didn’t provide any documents to research. Her secretary just responded with some times that she was available to do the interview with us. We sent over the questions we had thought up so that Carolyn could prepare some responses before the interview and I think that this showed her that we did enough preparation and learned about her life enough to make those questions. SECTION FOUR In the interview we noticed that Mrs. Brehm’s volume was relatively low when telling us about her childhood and early influences. She became much more animated, speaking louder and moving her head more, as the interview went on and especially when she was talking about her time working at General Motors. From this we interpreted that she was truly passionate about her professional life. She put a great emphasis on the rapidly growing wealthy population in China, �as she brought up these consumers several times throughout the interview in response to separate questions. Finally, and most importantly, we noticed that after asking about her the challenges she faced as a woman her facial expressions were much different than the other questions. She pressed her eyebrows and made slightly uncomfortable movements with her lips. Upon analyzing the interview it seems that she is trying to be optimistic with her response. For example she notes that “It was hard,” working at GM being that it was a macho industry, but then talks about how it was more difficult to be young (and then smiles). Similarly she mentions that “It’s been a mixed bag” implying that she has experienced adversity as a result of her gender (of course!) but then quickly notes how lucky she is to work in companies like P&G who value diversity. For future interviews we recommend being very attent when asking about the challenges facing the interviewee as a result of being a woman. I believe we were naive to quickly accept her response without probing further. Also we recommend using Google Hangouts as opposed to Skype because there is less delay, and it makes for easier feedback without disrupting the conversation. Transcription of the Interview: Intro: Simple welcoming; James: Explains why we are conducting the interview with Carolyn. James: Question 1: What did you think you were going to be when you grew up? Carolyn: First memory is that I wanted to be a teacher and gravitated towards Journalism due to working on the school’s newspaper in high school. John: Question 2: Was there a teacher in your high school or college that had a strong impact in your life and what can you tell us about them? Carolyn: The first one was my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Ellison from Germany. Her husband worked for the United Nations and she would bring in her husband’s work that involved foreign policies. And her views of America as a newly emigrated women in the United States. In High �School I had Tom Rollins as a History teacher. He was a globalist and encouraged us, the students that were interested in foreign affairs, to think big. James: Comments on how interesting it is that Carolyn was exposed to the information and the ideas of “thinking big”. Carolyn: I grew up in the Suburbs of Philadelphia. Father was in World War II and I had some opportunities to travel at a young age. The international exchange experience was a big motivator for me. I was living with a family in Bombay at the age of 16. It was absolutely life changing. Realizing how different the world is out there and how fortunate we are as Americans. John: What was it like living in a Third World Country? Carolyn: It was a real eye opener, a really amazing experience. I lived with a family that was middle class by Indian standards and my Indian parents were both medical doctors. My Indian father’s medical clinic was across the train tracks. My Indian mother had her OB GYN specialist clinic inside of the house. The house had no bathroom plumbing, only screens in the windows. I keep in touch with the family even now. It was a life changing experience. James: Question 3: How did you become interested in East Asian Studies? Carolyn: When I was applying for college after graduating high school in 1973, I was really interested in studying Hindi and there was very few schools teaching Hindi, but there were far more schools offering Chinese and Japanese due to opening of U.S China Relations with President Nixon going to China. So I was inspired to study Chinese for the opportunities. Going to Georgetown University was great because they offered a 4 year Chinese program. I needed to pass a foreign language proficiency. It was very difficult to learn Chinese, the first year it was 2 hours a day, 5 days a week at 8am. James: Comments on difficulty of programming and learning Chinese. �John: Question 4: What was the very beginning of your career at general motors like when Chinese markets had just opened up to American companies once again? Carolyn: China at that time was a state controlled economy, and state owned trading companies were doing all of the business between foreign companies and chinese companies. I started out in the importer services and then moved to director of business advisory services and after six years. I ended up meeting my husband who was an American diplomat who was stationed in the US consulate in Guangzhou. He ended up coming back to the United States (laughter), we got married then we were both looking for a way to get back to China. GM made me the most interesting offer by far to actually set up an office for General Motors in China *which would be the first official office since 1949 when all of the foreign companies exited during the Chinese Revolution. I joined GM in 1984 and for two years basically ran the arm of the GM trading company which existed at the time to work with economies that didn’t have a lot of hard currency. The work that I did in the 2 years there was mostly buying products like twist drills, cotton work gloves for factories (globally) and pig skin for making leather seats, crazy stuff! It was fascinating, I learned a lot about supply chain issues. The biggest single deal was selling 20 Cadillac limousines to Zhao Ziyang, the Premier at the time. We set up an after sale service in Beijing. That all happened, the limos were delivered in 1985 and it was a pretty big deal. For GM particularly because it was the first Cadillac that was sold (in China) since 1949. James: Question 5: What difficulties, if any, have you experienced as a result of your gender? Carolyn: Well I would say I worked in the Auto Industry which is a pretty macho industry, especially then. It was hard, in a place like China. China under communist rule actually had a lot of women in positions of authority. But being young was probably more difficult than being a woman. Particularly in those days, I was in my late 20s early 30s and to be taken seriously you �needed to have grey hair. Over the years what I found is that in different roles in Washington, and overseas, that I’ve held there are subtle ways of discrimination that you feel. The glass ceiling in a lot of places really still exists. In Europe it’s less prevalent. It has been a mixed bag, but I have been very lucky to work for companies that are committed to diversity. James: There are many difficulties that Americans have had being missionaries in other countries (as women), we really had to ask that last question! Second half of Question 5: what difficulties if any have you faced working as an American in Asia? Carolyn: One example is when I was an exchange student in India. It was 1972 the year after the India-Pakistan clashes where the US sided with Pakistan, so Americans weren’t really popular. There was a sense of alienation. Comments here and there about being an American. Mostly the time that I’ve spent overseas, I’ve realized how much reservoir of goodwill there is among people around the world for Americans and the ability to separate Americans from American policy. I fear in the world that we live in today, that things aren’t quite so open minded. John: Question 6: How do you learn about your consumer audience and translate this information back to your company? Carolyn: At P&G we have this great mantra that consumer is our boss. We don’t do anything without understanding what HER wants and needs are (smile). Her because about 80% of our products around the world are purchased by women (smile). It’s my role to talk to our consumer market knowledge people so that we can then re-apply their information. The work we do in global government relations and public policy also depends a lot on building up messages that explain what positions we take on public policy issues and why and those messages need to be crafted in ways that people can understand. We have some NGO stakeholders, trade �associations, other companies, the retailers that buy our products and then sell them to consumers. The Chinese consumer is changing extremely rapidly, there is a huge demand for premium products. That consumer has moved up market extremely rapidly, even to the point at which our business is just trying to catch up and understand what she wants. E-commerce in China has exploded, 45% increase since last year it now accounts for 15% of our sales. John: Question 9: What was it like working for Orbis which is an NGO, how was it different from working in a conventional business? Carolyn: For one there tend to be fewer resources in the NGO world, they just tend to be much leaner organizations that I infact enjoy a lot. Where everybody roles up their sleeves and does a little bit of everything. The thing I enjoyed most about ORBIS was being able to bring my business skills, strategic planning + people development, to an organization that had grown so fast that they really had lost sight of some of the things you need to do to grow sustainably. There were couple of things at ORBIS I was also tremendously surprised about. In the business world you know who the competitors are. In a Washington or public policy setting, we work with competitors at P&G, you need them to join together to advocate for public policy! In the NGO world the NGOs with ORBIS were very reluctant to partner with anybody! For some of the same stupid reasons! For profit companies don’t like the idea, they don't want to share anything proprietary that might damage their leg up in the market place. In the NGO world they don't want to partner because it might mean somebody else getting a contribution or donation that they want. It’s all about money! They would fight with each other about stupid stuff! Completely loosing focus on why they are on the planet, to help serve, to help treat these particular problems. I was really disappointed. We did end up partnering, but it was too hard, unnecessarily hard! �James: Question 10: How have you helped grow P&G’s business, and what are some of the key differences between Asian and American consumers of P&G’s products? Carolyn: The way we help P&G grow our business, is to protect and grow it by advocating for sound legislation, regulation, and public policies that are good for the company and consumers. We deliver those kinds of benefits to the company by targeting: tax policy, trade policy, research & development, policies in companies, chemical ingredients and the regulation of those ingredients, sound, advertising, and marketing regulation. Dealing with the internet and digital marketing. The second part of your question; believe it or not, there aren't that many differences. Consumers everywhere want products that will keep their families clean and healthy and growing and strong. We manufacture in 70 countries and market in 180, so we basically serve in most of the world. Around 5 billion consumers use our products each year. So out of 7.5… James: That’s a large percentage! Carolyn: It is! So you know Asians and Americans both want fluoride in their toothpaste, they’ll also want toothpaste that provides the opportunity to keep their teeth whiter. For hair care products, this is a great example. We have the same product names in different companies, like Head & Shoulders, but the products may have different chemical formulations. The differences between Asia and America probably are less than the differences between the socio-economic levels of the consumer here and there. In China we have this 1+ consumer that is very wealthy, travels extensively, the world is at her fingertips and she shops using her mobile device and can buy from just about any place in the world. And then you also have consumers in China that are at a middle class or lower class level that are more likely to be purchasing products from P&G that we make locally that are really crafted more for the consumers of that level. That’s a long winded answer to a tough question. �John: Comments on the purchasing differences being between class and not nationality. Carolyn: Absolutely. James: Comments on the difference in hair product formulations. John: Question 8: Do you perceive any specific characteristics that women possess that allow them to be efficient leaders in the business of public and foreign relations? Carolyn: I don’t want to utilize too many stereotypes here, but I would say women in my experience tend to have more emotional quotient in addition to IQ, and the EQ helps to deal effectively with different situations. Reading body language, reading the situation in a way that helps with cross cultural situations. I also would say that women tend to be more consensus driven in terms of leadership styles which can be very helpful in a large organization that actually operates based on teams. Increasingly my feeling is that is much of corporate America now-a-days as opposed to command control. So I think women thrive in those situations, however I also think that women have challenges; we’ve heard them from Sheryl Sandberg from “Lean In” (Book Title). Women tend to lose confidence in situations like that, and really need to find their voice and speak up otherwise they can be suppressed in a team setting in a way that doesn’t completely take advantage of an individual’s capabilities. For global careers women have excelled. In my space in Washington DC, almost half of the heads of Washington offices for global companies in this town are women. That has changed a lot in 20 years. There were a handful, and now there are almost half of us. John + James: Thank you for your responses, Happy Thanksgiving! SECTION FIVE We both do not regularly study Women or U.S Asian relations in the classes required for our majors, so everything we learned from Carolyn was meaningful to us. Her stories allowed for �both of us to relate in a specific way. James was able to relate to Carolyn’s story that she told about the rigorous schedule she had in her early years at Georgetown University learning Chinese because he studies Computer Science and programming languages everyday. John was able to relate to her telling us about living abroad in Bombay because he was fortunate enough to live in Peru for a year while in high school. James particularly found it meaningful when she began discussing the opportunities she was fortunate enough to have in the early stages of her career. Both of us are graduating soon and going out into the “real” world, so hearing about Carolyn’s early ventures in China was very inspiring. She was able to break social barriers by being a woman not only involved in governmental affairs but also by being the representative and facilitator of financial logistics for a very macho business. Carolyn attended a very prestigious college and studied East Asian studies and Chinese; and in doing so established a strong professional foundation. In many ways she had to go above and beyond her male peers at the time to have a professional position that was similar to theirs. Also we noticed that her interests, especially in early life, were highly influenced by her gender. She was interested in being a teacher (a highly female dominated field), then journalism (also consisting of many females) and later language which is also a subject popular amongst women. The fact that she decided finally to go into business/foreign affairs shows that she shifted her goals throughout her life and decided to go against the current of what was considered acceptable for her as a woman in society. John found her perspective on the Chinese market and the companies she worked for, both previously and currently to be most interesting. She was critical of both GM and ORBIS international for being unwilling to partner with other organizations. When we asked her what characteristics women possess that allow them to be great leaders in her field, she responded that �women work better in team environments than men. I believe that her intuition to see that these companies needed to join together with other companies is directly related to the consensus driven thinking she referred to when talking about women’s advantages in her field. Also another meaningful aspect of the interview was seeing how a woman who was driven by personal goals, as were many missionaries, ended up bringing about and continues to implement changes in the area of US-Asian (business and policy) relations. Finally it was interesting to see how a modern woman in power was relating to her mostly female consumer audience. We both agreed that there isn’t much information that Carolyn provided that wasn’t particularly useful. She gave well thought out answers that were clearly prepared and contained specific important events from her life. She gave us all the information we needed and answered in ways that would peak our own interests and relate to us as college students. Carolyn didn’t use too much jargon that would take away from the responses, and she spoke in a very casual tone rather than a formal tone as if we were clients. Some additional questions we would have liked to ask are, if different formulations of hair care are used for different ethnicities globally then which formulations are being sold in diverse areas of the United States? Also, what do you think about the book “Lean In”? How has it changed your life and what do you disagree about from the text? If we were given more time for the interview, we would have liked to ask for Mrs. Brehm’s advice on how to best manage international relationships and what strategies work best for achieving effective results from projects that are based in teams. Finally we would have liked to ask her more about her personal adversities that faced her as a result of her gender. The other class presentations we thought were particularly useful were Lola, Kofi, and Yalda’s presentation with Sophie Richardson and Alex and Viviana’s interview with Alice �Young. We thought Sophie Richardson’s goal of removing discriminatory policies and practices that apply to ethnic minorities in China was really powerful, and it is a great example of an American woman helping with an Asian country's endemic social issues. Although we have discrimination of minorities in the United States as well, the ethnicities discriminated against in China are often confined to rural areas and they have difficulty being represented in the government. The fact that Ms. Richardson supports this cause shows that she has great courage, and we feel lucky as Americans to know that she is one of our representatives in China. Also we liked that she actively engaged the students interviewing her by addressing their names and interests. Alice Young’s role of explaining laws to foreign companies and having Asian’s voices heard made her a very unique interviewee amongst others because she is an Asian American representing and helping Asian companies within the United States. Her work ethic was impressive and even a bit intimidating! She stood out to us because despite her hard work she maintained a friendly attitude and wasn’t afraid to be flamboyant amongst her very serious contemporaries. The fact that she was making progress for Asians within the United States set her apart from the other women who were interviewed. She was inspiring because she is extremely successful in her career as a lawyer, and she also uses her success to carry out justice for those who may not receive it otherwise. Also she, like Carolyn, went above and beyond many of her male peers to reach her level of success and also followed a career path not typically assigned to women. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brehm, Carolyn ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_cbrehm_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lynn, James ; Desmond, John Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Carolyn Brehm http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/4767f3e46aecd6cc49abfe865ee15cb2.pdf da6f011d3c6803e9ee12591ed72148be PDF Text Text �Carolyn Brehm is currently the Vice President for global government relations at Procter & Gamble. She has previously worked as a Vice President of Orbis International and as a director of Asia Trade Policy and Strategies at General Motors for 14 years. She attended Georgetown University where she studied East Asian Studies/Chinese. She landed her first job at the US China Business Council where she was then offered a deal by GM to set up GM’s first office in China since 1949, when all of the foreign companies exited during the Chinese Revolution. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_cbrehm_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lynn, James ; Desmond, John ; Brehm, Carolyn Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Carolyn Brehm http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/b91b276b18bec716ef422a9447b01ecb.pdf 69fcc6a7382f7c33d9c5521d6b5a9b71 PDF Text Text Christopher Gomez, Michael Munson, Seth Williams AAS 307 - Final Paper Section 1: Person interviewed: Clarissa Burt Interviewee’s title or position: Associate Professor of Arabic Language, Literature and Culture at the United States Naval Academy Date, time and length of interview: November 10th, 7:00 pm, 45 minutes Your objective in conducting the interview: To learn about the career and goals of Associate Professor, Clarissa Burt Section 2: Description of the pre-interview research (What did you find out prior to the interview about the person and/or place with which she is affiliated? How did you prepare for the interview?) List your interview questions. For our pre-interview research, we decided to Google our interviewee. The person that we found online was an actress and model. Before conducting any further research, we asked Professor Christoff if this was indeed the correct woman. It turned out that it was a different woman, so we were fortunate to catch this early on. Christopher conducted most of the communication between our group and Clarissa Burt, including initially contacting her about the interview, scheduling a time for the interview, and getting information from Clarissa. We were also given information by our �professor as a part of our research. We learned facts such as Clarissa being a professor at the US Naval Academy, her living in the Arabic world for over 10 years in a 20 year span, and about her interest in Arabic culture and literature. It was from this information that we were able to construct questions as a group for the interview. The group discussed and proposed each question, and organized them in an order that we found appropriate in regards to a chronological perspective. Each member had a printed out list of the questions we intended to ask Clarissa during the interview. These are some of the questions that we asked: What interested you into studying Arabic? What is it about Arabic literature that makes it stand out to you (as opposed to other types of literatures)? Do you plan to return to the Arabic world? What interested into becoming a professor? What kinds of responses have you gotten from your students? What is a current project of yours? Section 3: Answer these questions: 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain 2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain 3. What probing questions did you use? Explain 4. Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain Throughout the interview, Clarissa gave us vastly complete and elaborative answers to our questions. In fact, she would often answer the next couple of questions �we had set up before we could even ask them. It made sense that would answer the next questions that we had, as our list of questions was what we found to be chronological. For every question asked, she left us well informed on that specific topic and mentioned only information that was relevant to that topic. For example, when asked about what interested her into Arabic, she included every important point leading up to her ultimate decision, including what she was studying previously and what interested her in general. We consider that our interview was mixed, leaning more towards a structured format. Our group planned to follow the list of questions we had printed out, but at the same time, ask probing questions when appropriate in order to engage in somewhat of a “small talk” conversation. An example of a probing question that we used was when she told us about what interested her in Arabic literature, she mentioned the beauties specific to it. We asked her what exactly it was about the literature that made it so special, and sure enough she gave us a descriptive and immersive answer. She explained that she was hooked on the works of ancient Arabics like nomadic pastoralists and traders who lived such unique lives, and even by the ways young Arabs use literature as a means of establishing themselves and calling for change. Christopher conducted the communication between the group and Clarissa. From there the group worked together to construct our questions. Some notes were taken during the interview, but we also tried to focus on the conversations we were having with our interviewee, as we understood that we could take advantage of the interview being recorded. Michael was our group’s moderator during the interview, that is, he started us off and ended the event. All members participated in asking the �questions that we had prepared as well as questions that were not printed out that came as responses to Clarissa’s answers. Professor Burt did in fact give us some poets to look into. As a part of one of her answers, she mentioned Wadih Saadeh who now lives in Australia and whose work is documented on the Internet (many of which are translated by Professor Burt). At the end of the interview, Clarissa was apologetic in her current project not being womancentered and gave us two women poets that we could also look into online: Iman Mercal and Farah Chammah. Section 4: Insert your interview notes/write up here. Remember to be accurate and concise. Consider what was said, any emerging trends your interviewee mentioned, different interpretations, and recommendations for follow up interviews. Being a teacher in the field of Arabic Literature and Culture at the United States Naval Academy for about 11 or 12 years, Clarissa formally introduced herself as Associate Professor Clarissa Burt. Clarissa was also quick to point out that she had lived in Cairo for about 10 years total over a 20-year span prior to starting at the Naval Academy. It was be hard to hide our growing interest in Clarissa’s motives for learning Arabic (a language mostly concentrated in the Eastern Hemisphere) so we got right to asking her why she learned Arabic in the first place. Clarissa found the question humorous and responded with a story: Clarissa actually did not learn Arabic from the �get-go. Clarissa had studied numerous languages in High School (and even some in Middle School) and grew an immense interest for theology and the bible by her early twenties. More specifically, Clarissa concentrated on Latin and German in High School and then concentrated more on Hebrew and Greek as an undergraduate. Because of her peers and teachers tendency to tell Clarissa that Arabic would be too hard to learn without a prior general knowledge of the aforementioned languages, Clarissa saved Arabic for the last (but definitely not least) language that she would learn. Clarissa was immediately hooked on Arabic because of the beauty in the literatures she was encountering while studying the ancient language. Besides, Clarissa could go to the cafes in Cairo and bond with contemporary poets over the Arabic language and, well, what could be better than that!?! Ancient Arabic is different than other literatures and poetry because it shares a great deal with other Semitic languages and ancient poetries. With a Ph.D. in comparative Semitics, Clarissa is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and was able to give us a quick rundown about Arabic. Arabic has its own unique beauties and specificities because of the lifestyles of the Ancient Arabs who were nomadic pastoralists in the desert and people doing trading across the Arabian Peninsula. Clarissa was also naturally fascinated by how Arabic poetry was specifically being used by young people during her time in Egypt. Young people used this poetry to promote change for their generation and in society and displayed a tendency to go against what their parents were doing. Arab culture also has much more powerful poetry than the United States does. Poets would come to town in the Arab world and sell out giant stadiums, much like Beyoncé would do in the United States. The final interesting fact �about Arabic was that women’s participation in literate culture and cultural space was much more evident in Egypt than it was in the United States during the late eighties and early nineties. It is important to note that women in Egypt were actually playing a big part in politics, the working world, and literature at the time. They had a voice and a great ability to use the power of literature and poetry in order to preach their own concerns. This has interested Clarissa all throughout the course of her career. After hearing Clarissa rave about her experiences in Cairo and her love for the Arab world, we asked why she came back to the States and become a professor. The simple answer to this question is because Clarissa wanted to make a living doing what she loved and refused to settle for anything less. Clarissa loved studying and teaching the literature and language so much that there was no other option than for her to become a professor. Plus, Clarissa knew that her teaching could potentially open the doors for others to follow her footsteps into the Arab world. Clarissa has been very fortunate to have excellent students at the naval academy and has been tremendously gratified by the students who really take an interest in her work. She has gone on to watch some of her students become excellent in Arabic and this is what keeps her going. She always hopes that some of her students will use their Arabic skills in business, politics, or diplomacy after the navy. Finally, we asked Clarissa to give us some insight on women’s roles in the Arab world. It turns out that there are tremendously different situations regarding women’s roles that differ from country to country, or sometimes even within a single country. Clarissa has watched things change radically in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco throughout her career. The extent of women’s involvement has gone up and down with the fortunes �in the Egyptian political system. There is a feminist consciousness in the Arab world, which gets articulated differently from country to country. Since the revolution, Muslim brotherhood backlash and hostility towards women on the streets has been a problem and there continues to be suppression towards women. Just that morning, Clarissa had heard of a death of two sisters who had been thrown off the top of an apartment building. Her assumption that this was a murder goes to show the severity of these issues in the Arab world. On a brighter side, although there are serious problems in the Arab world, women are interested in creating opportunities for other women and in making society better for women and girls. While between 25 and 50 percent of young women cannot find jobs in the Arab world, women created an NGO that had very successfully given them pathways into careers. With some extremist groups that have the desire to push women back to a position of powerlessness and domestic seclusion still present in the Arab world, there are still women and men actively finding ways to participate and raise awareness. Section 5: Your analysis: What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? What aspects were not useful? What more would you like to know? What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain In my few years studying at Stony Brook University, I have only been assigned one interview, for my freshman seminar class. At first I thought because this task was so tedious that it would not be helpful. I figured that doing an interview was just a filler �assignment, just a project to keep us busy and kill time. After interviewing someone in our Stony Brook marine biology department, I learned a lot about the practices at our Stony Brook South Hampton campus, the biologist’s life and findings during her travels. This knowledge gave me great insight on some of the amazing things people are doing around the world. Learning about these experiences from a primary source is an excellent way to figure out more about the world and more about you. After doing my first interview it opened up my mind to new things that I may want to study here at Stony Brook in order to take advantage of my college experience while I am young and still have the chance. The same curiosity that is fulfilled with knowledge by reading books and articles can be achieved during an interview of knowledgeable people. Interviewing professionals has taught me that even if some have not yet gotten the luxury of publishing their life experiences into a book or journal, they still have amazing life changing lessons and experiences that are capable of inspiring those who are willing to listen. This year I was granted the luxury of being able to have a conversation over video chat with Professor Clarissa Burt. Professor Burt is a professor of Arabic studies at US Naval Academy. Her eventful life experiences have brought on her passion for the Arab culture. She spent 10 years living in the city of Cairo in Egypt where she was able to gauge her love for the topic from first-hand experience. She learned the language and grew an everlasting relationship with the Middle East. Within Clarissa’s journey throughout the Middle East, her main attachment grew between her and the art of poetry expressed there. She spoke to us of wonderful poets that inspired her, including Iman Mercal and Farah Chammah to name a few. In her spare time she would �enjoy watching these poets live in order to feel the emotions they convey through their work. Professor Burt wishes to be able to spread awareness to all of the unwritten languages that exist in the Arabic world. She wants to be able to eventually develop a written language platform for these languages, so that they may be understood by all who are willing and curious to learn more. Clarissa informed us of her relationship that started her family with a man she met in this Arabic land. She does not say much about this man other than the fact that he is the father of her children. Professor Burt also tells us a little about the backstory of one of her favorite writers Wadih Saadeh. Although that information is interesting I decided to place more focus on her effort to make Arabic poetry more globally recognized. While Clarissa’s works may not directly impact the career trajectories that our group wishes to follow, we found what we learned to be incredibly interesting. We find Clarissa Burt’s life to be an inspiration, and has persuaded us into looking more into Arabic literature. Our group would also like to learn more about women’s roles in the Arabic world, therefore the poets that Clarissa mentioned would be good starting points. The main interview that intrigued me was the group that interviewed Nancy Davis Lewis. Since my group had our own experience interviewing a woman whose main purpose was to implement change, this one caught my eye because her purpose was similar. Though Clarissa Burt’s goal was to implement change with language, Nancy Lewis thought that women should be agents of change. Nancy Davis Lewis a director of research at “East West Society”. Some of her main points that she preached is that she believes women to be more caring for the environment and that women should be the �main leaders in the development of society. She thinks that the voice of women being heard is important in going forward. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Burt, Clarissa ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_cburt_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gomez, Christopher ; Munson, Michael ; Williams, Seth Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Clarissa Burt http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/86c88c9a5c878ec876200b39ca7802b5.pdf 0222150afa0fd5035c1c27bae8037d57 PDF Text Text 1 �Associate Professor Clarissa Burt has been a teacher in the field of Arabic Literature at the United States Naval Academy for a little over a decade and has a Ph.D in comparative semitics. Clarissa lived in Cairo for about 10 years over the course of a 20 year span before coming back to the States to become a professor in the Naval Academy. Clarissa became interested in Arabic, a language mainly concentrated in the Eastern Hemisphere, after studying many other languages throughout high school. Her love for Arabic and knowledge of the language grew because of the beauty in the literatures that she was encountering while studying the ancient language. Clarissa was kind enough to give us a brief lesson on the Arabic language and notified us about how it was being used by young people during her time in Egypt and even went as far as to compare Arabic poetry in Egypt to Hip-Hop in American culture. Clarissa was also able to give us some insight about women’s roles in the Arab world. It turns out that there are tremendously different situations regarding women’s roles that differ from country to country, or sometimes even within a single country. Clarissa has watched these things change radically in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco throughout her career. The extent of women’s involvement has gone up and down with the fortunes in the Egyptian political system. There is a feminist consciousness in the Arab world which gets articulated differently from country to country. Since the revolution, Muslim 2 �brotherhood backlash and hostility towards women on the streets has been a problem and there continues to be suppression towards women. Just the morning of the interview, Clarissa had heard of a death of 2 sisters who had been thrown off the top of an apartment building. Her assumption that this had to have been a murder goes to show the severity of these issues in the Arab world. On a brighter side, although there are serious problems in the Arab world, women are interested in creating opportunities for other women and in making society better for women and girls. While between 25 and 50 percent of young women cannot find jobs in the Arab world, women created an NGO that had very successfully given them pathways into careers. With some extremist groups that have the desire to push women back to a position of powerlessness and domestic seclusion still present in the Arab world, there are still women and men actively finding ways to participate and raise awareness. 2 �3 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Burt, Clarissa ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_cburt_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gomez, Christopher ; Munson, Michael ; Williams, Seth Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Clarissa Burt http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/c50917b6ed42dfce6895f37d5528af55.pptx e863de3080e3aeab4417ff19e6b96827 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Burt, Clarissa ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_cburt_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gomez, Christopher ; Munson, Michael ; Williams, Seth Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Clarissa Burt http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/9c228806a9969b3d73a5b242c2dc619e.pdf df9a75e6b9544e2a9b773a880c4f13be PDF Text Text Asha Samuel, Arianny Santana, & Shamarie Williams Final Paper: Interview Section One Person Interviewed: Dr. Carol Hamrin Interviewee’s title and position: Senior associate at the Global China Center; previously a research professor at George Mason University and senior research specialist at the State Department Date, time, & length: The interview took place on 11/13/15 at 10:33 a.m. and lasted one hour and two minutes Objective: to learn about the career path of Dr. Hamrin and how that is reflective of the role of women in U.S.-Asian relations Section Two Before the interview, Dr. Hamrin sent us a resume with information about her education, her different positions in her career, her publications, and links to various videos of her speaking. Unfortunately, the videos didn’t work but the rest of the information was very valuable in our preparation. We had already read excerpts from a book that she edited, Salt and Light. We utilized resources she provided us with along with information we found on the internet from researching her, to formulate the questions. We prepared 13 questions. We asked three questions about her early life, which allowed us to understand how her childhood and education helped shape her path. We asked five questions about her career in the State Department and her involvement in human rights and religious freedom. Finally, we asked five questions that asked her to reflect on her career and the role of women in US-Asian relations. Of all these questions, we emailed her five that we felt were comprehensive of the entire set: �- Because we are interested in women in US-Asian relations, we wondered if being a woman affected your career path. - What led you to choose to focus on religion and how does it impact your career? - What influenced you to pursue a career as a speaker and consultant? - What, in your opinion, is one of the biggest issues concerning religious freedom? - What, in your opinion, is one of the biggest issues concerning human rights? How does it affect women in China? Section Three For our interview, we definitely got very complete answers to our questions from Dr. Hamrin. She took time to think about her answers and gave very thorough responses. For the most part, because of how complete her answers were, the interview was mixed structured. We were able to ask questions about her opinion or experiences in situations that we didn’t anticipate being able to ask ahead of time but for much of the interview, it wasn’t necessary. She answered the questions to the fullest so we didn’t need to ask many follow up questions. In fact, sometimes her answers allowed us to skip other questions. Our questions about the actual subject matter of her career were probing. They were questions that asked her to tie her career to current affairs and allowed us to gain much more knowledge about the subjects. Our team was very balanced in our work. Asha initiated contact with Dr. Hamrin, Arianny contacted her about the questions we would ask, and Shamarie sent her a follow up thank you email. During the interview, we all asked questions in a rotation. Although Asha was designated to take notes, we all jotted down comments we found interesting or important so we could get a more accurate portrayal of our opinions during the interview. Dr. Hamrin didn’t �outright give us resources but she did mention various people that were involved in her career and the State Department as a whole. Section Four Through the interview, we were able to understand Dr. Hamrin’s career path and how that ties in with the role women play in U.S.-Asian relations. Dr. Hamrin’s interest in Asia, particularly China, started with her father who was in the Pacific during World War II. The souvenirs from his time overseas and the Pearl Buck books that lined his bookshelves peaked her curiosity. She didn’t realize how much this impacted her until recently when she began writing memoirs for her own children. Her motivation to go to college came from her mother. As a widow, her mother constantly said that it would be Dr. Hamrin’s brother that would go to college so that he could support the family. This instilled a sense of determination in her to have a higher education. She knew that she wanted to go to college out of state and was able to do so by attending St. Olaf College with a scholarship from her church. This also allowed her to study abroad in Thailand and Hong Kong. At the time the Red Guards were rioting in Macao, and even though she couldn't go there due to the chaos of the rioting, she was able to witness in person the Cultural Revolution in Macau. These experiences sparked an interest in her wanting to understand the Cultural Revolution in China as a whole. While doing her Masters at Yale, she focused on China and learned the Chinese language. She got married after college; she and her husband moved to Wisconsin after she finished her Masters. She struggled to find teaching jobs and instead applied to be a typist at an Asian American Studies office. She ended up walking out of the office with a four-year fellowship to study in China. She earned her Ph.D. in comparative world history from the �University of Wisconsin. Even though it was atypical for anyone, let alone a woman, to go for a doctorate, her husband encouraged her to pursue the degree. Fortunately, it opened up many doors for her. She entered the State Department during the feminist movement. During this time, there was a raising of social consciousness and her coworkers were aware of her stance and involvement as a feminist. When we asked her if being a woman affected how she was treated, she said that it didn’t. Because her coworkers knew she was a feminist, they occasionally make jokes and tried to be politically correct. Her doctorate allowed her to be taken seriously; her high level of education outweighed her gender. Dr. Hamrin became involved with human rights and religious freedom because the State Department was required to do an annual human rights analysis on every country around the world. Specialists had to figure out the human rights platform of China, and one of the categories of the report was religious freedom. At the time they didn't know much about the situation and it was difficult to get information. For the most part people saw China as having a secular society. There was so little information about religion. People believed there were underground Christians, but that only ethnic minorities were religious believers. Using her own contacts with missionaries, Dr. Hamrin was able to start working on preparing information. It is important to note that not only is she a career woman but she is also a family woman. She has a husband, Bob, who she said is very supportive, and at one point was the only supporter she had in pursuing higher education and achieving a high level career. She also has three children, and when she needed to focus more on her family, her and Bob both stepped up. He started working at home, and she had the State Department create the first part time job in history for her-- even though she was still doing the work of three people. Back then, it was the norm for �women to stay at home and care for the family instead of pursuing a career, but she did both because she had that support from her husband and children. During this time, in 1986, Dr. Hamrin was approached by Ruth Graham (the wife of the famous evangelist Billy Graham) to help them prepare for their first trip to China. The Grahams wanted to be conscious and respectful of Chinese culture so they wanted an expert involved in their plans. She worked with them from 1986 to 1988 by doing research on the history of the Church in China, helping them prepare, and travelling with them to China. She continued to do more reporting and analysis on religion in China for the annual reports. She said that she was considered an expert on China and its religious issues because she was the only one who cared. Under the Clinton Administration, the White House asked her to brief Congress on religion in China and work on a plan to send a group of religious leaders to China during the big debate of what was the most favored nation. The Clinton Administration wanted to find ways of dealing with the issue of religious freedom in China so it took the initiative of trying to get business people to pay more attention, sending religious delegations to China, and requiring more reporting on religious freedom. Dr. Hamrin mentioned that it was evident that the U.S. government was just touching the surface of understanding foreign relations and foreign policy with China, at the time when China opened up to a market economy. The U.S. didn't understand certain things because the government didn’t have the resources to thoroughly investigate and study certain changes. All the U.S. learned and had time to focus on was what was given from the foreign ministries and high-level leaders. She made it her mission to know more so she took a 2-year sabbatical to study the Five Year Plan in China. This was the start of her being the one to take the initiative to not just speculate and reach for the surface of what was going on is China, but to dig deeper. �Dr. Hamrin said that around the late ‘90s and early 2000s the U.S. government would ask the Chinese about religious freedom but ignore the big underlying issues. The U.S. would focus on major world religions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, but ignore the issue of religious freedom for the 90% of Han Chinese who were being persecuted. This was an issue for her and when there was a big internal debate in the government about whether or not a persecuted cult religion in China should be defended, she argued that as long as its practices are safe and legal, it should be defended just like any other religion. In the early 2000s, Dr. Hamrin was eligible for early retirement from the State Department and decided to take it. She was tired of politics and wanted to work for herself. She now works from home as a senior associate for the Global China Center in Virginia. After covering her influences and career path, we transitioned to more reflective questions about the current state of China and where it could be headed. There is great controversy among experts on religious freedom in China. There are some that would agree that things are getting better and some who wouldn’t. According to Dr. Hamrin, the growth of religion is China has forced the government to recognize religious freedom, but it doesn’t know how to fix the issue. Dr. Hamrin mentioned that people in China on the ground are choosing more and more to ignore governmental restrictions and policies, and are living by their commitments and faith. She said that this gradually will force chance de facto and the government will have to respond to the issue. She also mentioned that this way in which the people has stood up for themselves, has forced a lot of change in China already, including economic change, and the government has had to change policies to keep up with what's happening. �The interrelationships among different sectors (i.e., economic, political, cultural, social) have impacted foreign relations and domestic change in China. Dr. Hamrin mentioned that the basic freedoms in China need help, but the freedom of association is one of greatest concerns. She said that China’s governmental structure is still Marxist-Leninist although the economy is Capitalist. So, in theory equality reigns but this is not the case in practice. The Party dominates key decision making, though the leadership at the top is having a power struggle that isn't getting resolved. She said that Freedom of Association has been growing for non-governmental organizations, but the party still has strong control over these organizations by authorizing those that work closely with the party, and delegitimizing those that don't. We ended the interview with asking Dr. Hamrin for advice she could give to us or anyone who wants to pursue a career similar to hers. She told us to find our calling, find our niche in a field, and pursue it. She particularly emphasized not letting anyone talk us out of our interests because even if it might not seem viable or traditional now, what we want to do might be the norm in ten years. She told us that perseverance and passion are crucial for a successful and happy career. Section Five Overall, there were many parts of the interview that we found useful, both for this project and as a personal takeaway. Hearing about her career path was definitely useful. It gave us a clearer picture of how women in government can be involved in foreign relations and how being specialized opened doors for her. It was interesting to see how sticking with a particular area of interest can be incredibly helpful. When she first started out, she struggled to get a teaching job. But because of her education and her focus on religious issues, she was able to go farther than she imagined. �It was also great learning about how much the State Department changed in the years she was working there, and how she became a part of that change. Her interest in China was something that ultimately benefitted not only her but the State Department as well. We also found the fact that she noticed a bias occurring when people discussed religious freedom in China and worked towards rectifying it meaningful. In the interview, she stated that she wanted to work towards religious freedom for all, not only her religion and the fact she recognized the fact that minority religious groups indicated a lot about the type of person she is and why she choose to focus on religious freedom. Dr. Hamrin’s advice to us was particularly useful. She told us to find our unique calling, and focus on that. It’s not often that you get to sit down with someone that’s made it in her field and ask for help. It’s an opportunity that all three of us valued. Students often hear advice to chase their dreams but it never seems realistic. The way Dr. Hamrin phrased it made having a career in something you’re passionate about seem doable. In general, we would’ve liked to hear more about Dr. Hamrin’s work now with the Global China Center and exactly what that entails. Learning more about how her previous experience affects her work now would’ve been very interesting. In fact, learning more in depth about the various stages of her career would’ve been useful. The purpose of our interview was to learn about her career path so it wasn’t feasible for us to go into depth when her career started in the ‘70s. After listening to the presentations of other groups we would have also liked to learn more about current projects that she is involved with. Although many of the women in other groups stated that their work didn’t focus specifically on women, their role in current projects was essential and would have been a great way to map Dr. Hamrin’s career trajectory. �All of the projects that we got to see were fascinating; it was great to see all these different perspectives on women in U.S.-Asian relations. It was especially interesting to see when other interviewees touched on subjects similar to things Dr. Hamrin told us. One of these ideas was the fact that Dr. Hamrin felt like being a woman didn’t negatively affect her career path. She gave us a specific answer to the reason for this, that she was well educated. However, the groups that interviewed Jennifer Chou and Dr. Latha Chandran mentioned that their interviewees felt the same way. If we had known beforehand that many people had this experience, we would’ve asked her more about how she thinks being a woman affects other careers. Another idea that was similar to something Dr. Hamrin said, and something we’ve touched on in class, was mentioned by Margarethe Adams. She said that female ethnographers have a different perspective than male ethnographers. She would get the perspective of other females especially those who have families whereas single male ethnographers would get the perspectives of other single men in the area. This was a sentiment that Dr. Hamrin also expressed when she talked about her work in the State Department. She said that the men would approach situations with solely a political perspective while she would look more at social issues. Hearing about Dimon Liu was exciting because she is also involved in human rights in China. This was an interesting juxtaposition because Dimon Liu worked directly with the issue while Dr. Hamrin worked to rectify these issues from a different position. It’s important to consider that when Dimon Liu was trying to get the government’s attention about China, it refused to help as opposed to when Dr. Hamrin was in the State Department and they especially focused on it. It highlights the need for different positions of power and ability when it comes to righting wrongs. �We could talk about all the women we learned about for pages. They all offered such interesting perspectives and work in such powerful ways to try to change the world. It’s easy to get something out of each presentation and be able to relate to all these women. The biggest takeaway from this project is that there are so many ways of being involved as long as you don’t let anything hold you back. Whether or not they felt like they were being faced with injustice, these women fought to break that glass ceiling and get to where they want to be. They showed us that there are many different ways to be involved with foreign relations and that being a woman in this is a very specific, important niche. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hamrin, Dr. Carol ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_chamrin_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Samuel, Asha ; Santana, Arianny ; Williams, Shamarie Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Dr. Carol Hamrin http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/e5803c3fec7fd41d5636c0d56a2c2c92.pdf bc26640b1a0975eed4eb09a8a0e9873f PDF Text Text ��� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hamrin, Dr. Carol ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_chamrin_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Samuel, Asha ; Santana, Arianny ; Williams, Shamarie Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Dr. Carol Hamrin http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/8544fcfc8c6a1c8774576ddd74bd38df.pptx 89f0d7996d1d13c1844da93c96f9d8d0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Hamrin, Dr. Carol ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_chamrin_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Samuel, Asha ; Santana, Arianny ; Williams, Shamarie Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Dr. Carol Hamrin http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/f94973d971c5806c2171bb81b2d08ec3.pdf fac278fcfed8dde05b152d18962d6bb8 PDF Text Text Dr. Latha Chandran was born and raised in Kerala, which is the most southern part of India. At the age of 17, she moved to the United States where an arranged marriage was planned for her. Before traveling to the United States, she pursued a medical degree from the University of Kerala Medical School. When she left India for the United States, she had no idea what was in store for her. She began applying to different residency programs, even while being seven months pregnant. After getting denied several times from the residency program here at Stony Brook, she began applying elsewhere even though it was inconvenient. She eventually got accepted into a residency program at Lincoln Medical Center in New York City. After working there for several months, the chief of residents at Stony Brook eventually realized what she is capable of. She was then offered a position at Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was asked to be chief resident after only being there for three months. Now after thirty years of practicing medicine, she focuses most of her time towards undergraduate medical education, where she stands as the vice dean. Dr. Chandran is outstanding physician, who has overcame tremendous obstacles to get to where she is today. �The questions that we asked Dr. Chandran were centered on the obstacles that she faced while being here in the United States. Although she left her family behind in India at a young age to move to the United States, it was never a decision she regretted. When asking why she wanted to pursue a career in medicine, she responded “my mother wanted a child that was a doctor.” This was significant because it demonstrated the relationship between parents and children within different cultures. Dr. Chandra claimed that when she came to the United States she wanted to make a difference. She wanted to change the way that us Americans view Indians and their culture. This in person interview was conducted on November 5th at approximately 3:00. This interview lasted for about 40 minutes. We asked Dr. Chandra prior to our interview if we could audio record her, which was done on both an ipad and an iphone. Audio recording her was extremely beneficial because it gave us the chance to go back and analyze the information that she had provided for us. This interview was conducted like a mixed structured interview. There were both prescribed and flexible questions that were asked and Dr. Chandran provided us with her own opinions. She was extremely enthusiastic and grateful to be interviewed for our final project. Publisher’s note (3/16/2017) The following document is the same as above, but with corrections made by the interviewee, Dr. Latha Chandran, in red. �Dr. Latha Chandran was born and raised in Kerala, which is the most southern part of India. She moved to the US after having an arranged (not forced) marriage when she was 25.At the age of 17, she moved to the United States where an arranged marriage was planned for her. Before traveling to the United States, she pursued a medical degree from the University of Kerala Trivandrum Medical CollegeSchool. When she left India for the United States, she had no idea what was in store for her. She began applying to different residency programs, even while being seven months pregnant. After getting denied several times from the residency program here at Stony Brook, she began applying elsewhere even though it was inconvenient. She eventually got accepted into a residency program at Lincoln Medical Center in New York City. Although she was rejected three times from the residency program at Stony Brook, she transferred her in her final year of residency. After working there for several months, the chief of residents at Stony Brook eventually realized what she is capable of. She was then offered a position at Stony Brook University Hospital, where Sshe was asked to be chief resident after only being there for three months. Now after twenty threethirty years of practicing medicine, she focuses most of her time towards undergraduate medical education, where she servetands as the vice dean. Dr. Chandran is an outstanding physician, who has overcoame tremendous obstacles to get to where she is today. �The questions that we asked Dr. Chandran were centered on the obstacles that she faced while being here in the United States. Although she left her family behind in India at a young age to move to the United States, it was never a decision she regretted. When asking why she wanted to pursue a career in medicine, she responded “my mother wanted a child that was a doctor.” This was significant because it demonstrated the relationship between parents and children within different cultures. Dr. Chandran claimed that when she came to the United States she wanted to make a difference. She wanted to change the way that us Americans view Indians and their culture. This in person interview was conducted on November 5th at approximately 3:00. This interview lasted for about 40 minutes. We asked Dr. Chandran prior to our interview if we could audio record her, which was done on both an ipad and an iphone. Audio recording her was extremely beneficial because it gave us the chance to go back and analyze the information that she had provided for us. This interview was conducted like a mixed structured interview. There were both prescribed and flexible questions that were asked and Dr. Chandran provided us with her own opinions. She was extremely enthusiastic and grateful to be interviewed for our final project. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_lchandran_ppt_corrected_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. The original PowerPoint file was deleted from the Chandran project. This decision was made by the publisher since corrections were made to the notes in the PowerPoint and everything was captured in the PDF version of the PowerPoint. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Liranzo, Emely ; Jaramillo, Victoria ; Shevlin, Alyssa ; Chandran, Dr. Latha Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Dr. Latha Chandran http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/085dfe047d013312254a99890a00eb69.pdf 4930c1a20234a45625cc98f52d8d07d1 PDF Text Text Emely Liranzo Victoria Jaramillo Alyssa Shevlin Dr. Latha Chandran Interview (Section 1) Person interviewed: Dr. Latha Chandran Interviewee’s title or position: Pediatrician, chief of residents at Stony brook University Hospital, and undergraduate medical educator. Date, time, and length of interview: This interview was conducted on November 5th at approximately 3:00 pm. This interview lasted for about 40 minutes. Your objective in conducting this interview: It was centered on the obstacles that Dr. Chandran faced while being here in the United States. (Section 2) Description of the pre-interview research (What did you find out prior to the interview about the person and/or place with which she is affiliated? How did you prepare for the interview?) We searched for Dr. Latha Chandran in Google, and we found out that she is a pediatrician in East Setauket, New York and is affiliated with Stony Brook University Hospital. She received her medical degree from University of Kerala Medical College and has been in practice for 31 years. She is one of 108 doctors at Stony Brook University Hospital who specialize in Pediatrics. Dr. Chandran has many publications in which she emphasize mostly in medical education, disease in children, and programs for youth. She is an outstanding physician with honors and recognition for most of the achievements she has made. We prepared our questions for the �interview based on the research we did, mostly using her publications as a source. We asked her about her background and personal experiences since she moved to the United States. List your interview questions. 1. Where did you grow up? 2. What occupations did your parents and siblings pursue? 3. Did you ever consider a career other than medicine? (Please explain.) 4. What were your reasons for moving to the United States? And how did you learn the language? 5. What inspired you to specialize in pediatrics? 6. What were your reasons for developing an expertise in contraception, diaper rash, genital warts and pneumonia? 7. What personal and professional goals matter the most to you? 8. We noticed that you have many publications and even won two awards (Bridges to Excellence Recognition and NCQA Physician Practice Connections). How did you manage to achieve so much in your career? 9. Did you face any particular hardships while you were pursuing your career in medicine? 10. Was it difficult to be a woman in medical school? (Why or why not?) 11. What advice would you give us as we pursue a career in medicine? (Section 3) 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain At the time Dr. Chandran was answering our question, she always answered what we asked her with details of her past experiences, always bringing more details to answer our questions. When we asked her: “what inspired you to specialize in pediatrics?” her answers were not �straightforward, she started with her past experiences when she was in University of Kerala where she specialized in gynecology, then when she moved to the United States to do her residency it was difficult and full of challenges because she didn’t go to a medical school in the US. With some influence she was accepted into Stony Brook University Hospital where she did her residency in pediatrics. 2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain Our interview was mixed, but mostly unstructured. We followed the sequence of the questions we prepared, but flexible in asking open questions as Dr. Chandran was responding. This allowed us to get more deep information and understanding in what she was saying. Like when we asked her: “What were your reasons to come to the United States?” she responded that she moved because an arranged marriage where his husband was living in the U.S. something that was part of her culture. With this information we asked her more in depth and personal questions based on her arranged marriage, like what her parents were expecting, and if that was what she wanted. We were flexible in developing new questions that weren’t in our list. 3. What probing questions did you use? Explain One of our probing questions was: “What did you mean by cultural shock?”, she answered that in India doctors are held in respect. They don’t communicate if the patient has cancer for example or if the family request it. Here in the United States things are different, nurses yell at doctors saying that they are the worst in the area, where in India there’s more respect. This is what she meant by cultural shock. 4. Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? Each person in our group asked mostly the same amount of questions from our list. We also approached to her differently in terms of open questions in our interview. Our focus was to know �more about her and get to the deepest responses from her. This interview was conducted like a mixed structure interview because we tended to stick to our questions, yet go off track enough for Dr. Chandran to have the opportunity to say what she needed to. 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain Dr. Chandran didn’t provide or suggested us any document or mention people to follow up, but she focused more in giving us awesome advice like, “Whatever you do, be the best”, “In life you have to take some risk and be prepared to fail”, “If you do your best people will notice you”, “Follow what your heart tells you to do, because if you do then it’s a journey”. This advice was strong and significant to us, as we want to pursue a career in medicine. (Section 4) Insert your interview notes/write up here. Remember to be accurate and concise. Consider what was said, any emerging trends your interviewee mentioned, different interpretations, and recommendations for follow up interviews. Interview Notes: - Born in Kerala, India (which is the most southern part). - Mother was a housewife, father had a degree in law but is a banker, brother has an engineering degree and sister is in higher education. - Went to an all-women’s college - Language was not an issue -- India is a British colony, so English is taught - The mother wanted a child that was a doctor. The brother was ultimately the chosen one but he didn’t want to be a doctor, so Dr. Chandran decided that since she was good at school she might as well go for it. �- She was the youngest in medical school at the University of Kerala. - She came over to the United States at 17 for an arranged marriage. “Although it was an arranged marriage, it doesn’t mean it was a forced marriage” (Dr. Chandran). - She realized he was good to his family so she knew that they would be the perfect match since she is a family person. - Applied to Stony Brook residency three times but got denied every time. - She wanted to work at Stony Brook because it was convenient (close to house and children, only had one car). - After getting a residency program at Lincoln Memorial Medical Center in New York City, a fellow employee saw what she was capable of and recommended her to Stony Brook, where she finally got accepted. - After being there for three months, she was asked to be chief resident, where she finally resigned because of the stress. (Made work schedules for employees, dealt with paperwork, etc.) - She DOES NOT specialize in genital warts, diaper rash, etc. She does specialize in pediatrics and adolescent health though. When she was in India she had a lot of experience in gynecology. - Wanted to be invisible throughout her residency - She has won numerous awards for her work - Works for undergraduate medical education at Stony Brook University Recommendations: Our interview went exactly like we pictured it would go. We had a mixed structure interview, so we had both prescribed questions and open ended. We gave Dr. Chandran the opportunity to say what she needed to and go off on tangents about topics that she thought �was important. It was a comfortable environment and we felt like she was one of us. We recommend for follow up interviews to be honest and understanding. If you disagree with what the individual who you are interviewing has to say, tell them, it will open up a new conversation. Also, elaborate on what they say. If there is a topic that sounds interesting to you, ask them more about it. Another recommendation is to make sure to do research about the person you are interviewing prior to the interview, it will give you more to talk about and help you understand what they are saying. Listening is also a key recommendation when conducting an interview. A final recommendation would be ask what you don’t know. When asking what you don’t know it makes you seem like you are interested in what the individual has to say, along with learning something that you didn’t already know. This also opens up to new conversations and it makes it much more personal. Different Interpretations: When conducting this particular interview with Dr. Chandran we didn’t really have any problems interpreting what she had to say. She very clear on all the information that she had provided us with. Although the information was clear for the most part, there was one detail that was confusing. Dr. Chandran stated within her interview that she had traveled to the United States at 17 years old for her arranged marriage. Traveling to the U.S at 17 is possible, but she also stated that she had obtained her medical degree by then. In the U.S it is almost impossible to have completed medical school at 17, but we aren’t aware of how the education system works in India. After reviewing the audio recording, we noticed this, so it was not addressed within the interview. We left out this information while presenting because we didn’t want to give false information, so we stated that she traveled to the U.S “at a young age.” Overall, we were able to clearly interpret the information that Dr. Chandran had provided for us. Commented [CL1]: The confusion of the students regarding when I moved to the US is clear in this paragraph. �Trends: When conducting this interview, there were numerous trends that were brought up. Dr. Chandran made it clear that one way to be successful is by never giving up. The idea of never giving up was constantly brought up throughout the interview. She used personal stories to make more relatable for us to comprehend. For instance, her experience of applying for a residency program showed how determined she was to be a doctor. Although she got denied several times, she never gave up. Another trend that was often seen throughout this interview was to make sure you pick a career that you love. She made it clear that having a career that makes a lot of money isn’t worth not being happy. “A job that makes $750,000 where you aren’t happy doesn’t compare to a job that you love where you are making $75,000” (Dr. Chandran). (Section 5) Your analysis: What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? One of the aspects of the interview that was meaningful to us, was how Dr. Chandran used her perspective and experiences, like applying to Stony Brook Hospital, to show us how people have to persevere. She applied to Stony Brook University Hospital to do her residency program, but she was rejected three times every year. She began applying elsewhere even though it was inconvenient, she eventually got accepted into a residency program at Lincoln Medical Center in New York City. When she started her residency there, she got some connections who made Stony Brook to take her in consideration. When they called her for the interview, Dr. Chandran was pregnant, which was a disadvantage for her because of domestic responsibilities. They asked her what was she capable of, she reply: “Once I come here I can show what I am capable of”, and that was the attitude they liked. She was finally accepted and then they offered her a position where she was asked to be chief resident after only being there for three months. What aspects were not useful? �One of our questions was: “What were your reasons for developing an expertise in contraception, diaper rash, genital warts and pneumonia?” Dr. Chandran was a little impressed with this question, and she asked us where we got that question from. We told her that we did a little research about her and we found this information. She just laughed and said that she did her expertise in pediatric. In terms of diaper rash, genital warts, and pneumonia she is not in that area, but is something that she doesn't feel uncomfortable with. What more would you like to know? When interviewing Dr. Chandran, there wasn’t a lot of information about her contributions to U.S- Asian relations. Although she talked about her upbringings in India, she didn’t discuss what she had done to help both India and America. When doing research on her, information about her life other than her career wasn’t really provided. We understand that she has had many successes, such as awards, but during the interview she didn’t touch upon if any of these awards were related to U.S-Asian contributions. Personally if we were to re-interview her, I believe we would ask more questions focusing on her background in India rather than her career. What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain Although all of the in-class presentations were well conducted and helpful, there were some that stood out upon the rest. For instance, the presentation on Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch that Melissa, Maria and Stephanie presented was extremely helpful because it provided us with both an insight on her personal life and her career. They began the presentation with a detailed biography of Ambassador Bloch. They started it by telling us about her upbringing in Chefoo (now Yantai) China and her family life. They then continued their presentation by including details about how she got started in her career. One detail that stood out was why she decided to join the Peace Corps. Bloch ultimately joined the Peace Corp as a result of John F. Kennedy’s �assassination. She felt like he dedicated so much time to his country and that she should do the same. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” (John F. Kennedy). This was a quote that Ambassador Bloch often lived by. Growing up her father constantly reminded her she needs to dedicate time to her country, because it has done so much for her. During this presentation, we enjoyed the personal stories that were described between the interviewers and Ambassador Bloch. By including personal stories, it made the interview more personal and relatable, which was seen during the presentation. This presentation was also very well organized. They were well prepared and knew exactly what to say during both the presentation and audio clip. Having a well prepared presentation makes it much easier for their listeners to comprehend the material, rather than going back and forth. Another presentation that was particularly useful was the one about Jennifer Chou and her career with Radio Free Asia. This presentation was extremely useful because it primarily focused on her contributions to U.SAsian relations. They began their presentations much like the other groups and discussed her upbringings within Taiwan. Chou was an only child and had a normal upbringing. She pursued an education at UCLA in Massachusetts. Her family would often watch the news, which eventually gave her an interest in journalism. Her mother wanted her to be a career woman because her mother was never able to. Learning this detail about her life was crucial because it described the relationship between children and parents within Asia. Majority of the time here in the United States we pick career paths based on our own interests, not because of what your parents want you to do (although this is true in some cases). One important detail that was described within this presentation was that Jennifer Chou didn’t experience any “culture shock” when she came to the United States. This was important because this was a major topic that was discussed within this course. By discussing the idea of culture shock, they included their in-class �knowledge into their interview, which demonstrated their understanding in the course. We also enjoyed the fact that they emphasized their presentation on how it was to be a woman within this field of work. This was significant because this course is focused on women and their contributions within U.S-Asian relations, which is exactly what Jennifer Chou had accomplished. They discussed how Chou often was discriminated against because she was a woman, but that didn’t seem to stop her. Her main focus within her career is looking at human right issues that are associated with women and what she can do to fix them. This presentation was extremely beneficial because it gave us an understanding of what this course was really about. It opened up our eyes to how powerful women’s contributions can be to not only the country that they are focused on, but others that are also in need. Publisher’s note (3/16/2017) The following are corrections made by the interviewee after reviewing the student report of the interview. The corrections correlate to the phrases highlighted in yellow in the student report above: Latha Chandran’s corrections to the Student Interview AAS 2015 report (submitted 3/15/17) Interviewee’s title or position: Vice Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, Professor of Pediatrics and Board Certified General Pediatrician Section 2: In 2015 I was in practice for 23 years (not 31) Section 3: She completed her residency at Stony Brook University Hospital after having started it at Lincoln Hospital (there was no “influence,” etc.) Question 3: Here in the United States, patients have more say in their care. I have personally been yelled at by nurses during my intern years, whereas in India there is more respect. �Section 4: She started medical school at 18, got married at 25 and came over to the US with a green card at 27 years of age. She would not have come to the US if it weren’t for her marriage. Section 4: After being at Stony Brook for three months as a senior resident she was offered the position of a fourth year chief residency which she successfully completed (there was no resignation of any kind). Section 4: Wanted to be invisible throughout her medical school in India due to fear of hazing (not residency). Section 5: ….but she was rejected three times. Delete every year. Section 5: She just laughed and said that as a general pediatrician she has some expertise in all common problems that affect children, but she was not a super expert like a subspecialist. 2017 Update Dr Latha Chandran as of 2017, is the Miriam and David Donoho Distinguished Teaching Professor and the Founding Director of the Donoho Academy of Clinical and Educational Scholars. She currently serves as the Vice Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs at Stony Brook School of Medicine. In 2016, Dr Chandran was named a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and subsequently inducted into the SUNY Distinguished Academy. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_lchandran_doc_corrected_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Liranzo, Emely ; Jaramillo, Victoria ; Shevlin, Alyssa ; Chandran, Dr. Latha Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Dr. Latha Chandran